This invention relates to hand exercisers in general and more specifically to finger stretchers, and finger, hand, and forearm strengtheners for musicians. Increasing the reach, span, and dexterity of the fingers and improving the strength of the fingers, hand, and forearm is important for many individuals, especially for musicians and beginner musicians learning to play a musical instrument, such as a guitar or piano. Stretching the fingers and strengthening the fingers, hand, and forearm will enable the individual to execute hand movements more easily and will allow the musician and beginner musician to more effectively play an instrument such as guitar or piano. Increased finger span will also allow the musician and beginner musician to more easily make stretches required on a musical instrument such as guitar or piano.
Although the fingers, hand, and forearm can be conditioned and strengthened while playing the musical instrument, sometimes this can be a challenging and frustrating task, especially for the beginner musician that is not yet proficient on the instrument. Such an individual will often find more pleasure in mimicking the motions of playing the instrument, especially while listening to a favorite song. One example of this satisfying user activity is commonly referred to as “playing air guitar”.
Additional opportunities to exercise the fingers and hand can often be missed: the musical instrument may not always be available to the musician; the sudden urge, inspiration, or inclination to exercise the fingers and hand may occur and pass quickly; or the musician may be located in an environment where the noise produced by a musical instrument may not be desired.
There is a need for a quietly operated, small, lightweight, and portable device that can be worn indefinitely on the hand without effort and will allow the user to simultaneously stretch the fingers and strengthen the fingers, hand, and forearm. Such a device should also provide an engaging and encouraging exercise experience that includes allowing the user to execute a wide range of unrestricted motions and movements that mimic the playing of a musical instrument such as guitar.
There are many known devices to stretch the fingers or strengthen the fingers, hand, and forearm. Known devices such as U.S. Pat. No. 806,681 (1905) to Kursheedt, U.S. Pat. No. 886,591 (1908) to Finger, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,374,226 (1994) to Grahm include a board or plane to place the hand upon in a flat position and provide adjustable flat solid wedges or adjustable pegs to stretch the fingers apart.
Other known devices such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,568 (1990) to Clark et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,911 (1992) to Wyss include rigid rings connected to an adjustable rigid or semi-flexible frame that can receive a plurality of fingers and allow the fingers to be stretched in a predetermined fixed positioned or stretched in a limited or restricted manner.
Other known devices such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,062,625 (1991) to Vonk, U.S. Pat. No. 6,179,751 (2001) to Clears, U.S. Pat. No. 6,817,967 (2004) to Ott et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,986,728 (2006) to Kasun include a form of elastic material to be placed on or around the fingers to exercise and strengthen the extension of fingers through elastic resistance.
Other known devices such as U.S. Pat. No. 2,271,164 (1942) to Sullivan, U.S. Pat. No. 3,129,939 (1964) to Stock, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,303 (1998) to Scatterday include a deformable frame or pliable material to strengthen the hand through the resistance provided by a compressing or deforming activity.
Other known devices such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,228,001 (2001) to Johnson et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 8,343,015 (2013) to Zachary include both elastic extension resistance and compressible resistance to strengthen and exercise the fingers and hand.
Other known devices such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,453,064 (1995) to Williams, Jr. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,527,244 (1996) to Waller et al. include a form of glove to provide resistance and strengthening exercise to the hand when worn.
There are other devices such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,256 (1992) to Silagy and U.S. Pat. No. 7,967,732 (2011) to D'Addario et al. that use spring mechanisms to exercise and strengthen each individual finger of the hand and can treat the tips of the fingers.
There are also other devices known that describe the use of finger spacers, wedges, protrusions, or extensions to stretch the fingers, or position the fingers, or to therapeutically treat the hand. U.S. Pat. No. 5,820,522 (1998) to Smallwood et al. describes and claims a therapeutic device with a plurality of thin flat extensions that can include an elastic band to strengthen the hand. U.S. patent application 2009/0156361 (2009) of Ferri describes individually operating flat wedge finger spacers and individual conical finger spacers. In another embodiment proposed by Ferri, the individual spacers can be connected by a handle that is used to pull the spacers between the fingers. Foreign patent document WO 2011000010 (2011) of Wohltan describes a single finger positioner to be placed parallel between two adjacent fingers to space them apart while playing the guitar and uses a transversal pin to hold the wedge in place without obstructing the playing of the instrument.
All of the known devices possess one or more of the following deficiencies:
a. They do not include independent and distally open-spaced wedges to stretch the fingers apart with a substantial and continuous stretching force and do not include a connective base providing resistance in the palm of the hand to simultaneously strengthen the fingers, hand and forearm during use. These devices do not provide an increasing stretching force applied comfortably over the finger joint areas between the fingers as the user closes the hand.
b. They are bulky and constructed of rigid materials. These devices are heavy or cumbersome and cannot be worn or easily transported with the user for quick, convenient access and mobile use.
c. They employ a specific hand, wrist or arm position to operate and substantially inhibit the free movement of the hand, wrist or arm during use. These devices do not allow for a generous range of substantially unrestricted motion for fingers, hand, wrist and arm during use.
d. They do not securely hold their placed position on the hand without continued active effort on the part of the user. These devices do not allow for the user to wear the device indefinitely or to dynamically change hand, wrist and arm positions during use or execute natural and exaggerated finger, hand and arm movements including motions that mimic the playing of a musical instrument without losing the placement of the device on the hand.
e. They contain hard mechanical moving parts composed of plastic and metal, including springs that may produce an undesirable amount of noise during use.